Bachmann is a polished politician with more adaptability than she is given credit for. |
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Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson, a moderate GOPer who has watched Bachmann for years, agreed that Bachmann is often underestimated, adding, “She senses her audience very well. She knows the power of emotion in politics.”

The congresswoman is still finding her footing on the national stage, and her wild swings at fat pitches related to core social issues like abortion, gay marriage and – increasingly – Obamacare have led her to make some unwise, and sometimes nonsensical statements, in her public appearances.

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But she has been steadily filing down some of the sharper edges—depending on the event—and some think it could enable the congresswoman to broaden her appeal to attract a broader swath of voters beyond the social conservatives and evangelical Christians within Iowa who make up the bulk of her current base.

“The American media made a career out of criticizing Sarah Palin,” said Rep. Steve King, the prominent Iowa conservative who has become allied with Bachmann in Congress. “I think the media thought they had another pattern they could pick up (with Bachmann).”

But the Bachmann who took the stage at the St. Anselm’s College debate was not the caricature that many in the party expected. She was as facile with budget numbers as she was with Biblical quotations. She sounded firm but measured. And she referred frequently to her committee work in the House, keeping fact-specific, on-message and in the GOP mainstream—something her critics, who deride her as a Sarah Palin-lite, were not expecting.

It was the clearest case yet of Bachmann fine-tuning her pitch for a presidential run that can’t succeed unless she expands her support beyond the party’s far right.

Even before that, though, there were signs Bachmann was tailoring her message to the audience. At one April event with social conservatives in Pella, a small manufacturing town with 10 downtown churches and fewer than 10,000 residents, the congresswoman denounced Planned Parenthood as “the LensCrafters of Big Abortion.” She also criticized a state court decision concerning gay marriage, dubbing the judges behind it “black-robed masters.”

Bachmann talked in ecumenical terms, relating her story of becoming a born-again evangelical after a childhood raised as a Lutheran.

“I was 16 years of age and I received the Holy Spirit into my life at that time and I will tell you the most distinct feature about a changed life for me was an absolute hunger and a thirst for the word of God,” she told the crowd.

Two hours later, however, at a student union event at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, she dialed it down considerably.

Gone where references to the “black-robed masters.” Her “LensCrafters” line didn’t get a repeat airing either. The core message was the same, but its trimmings had changed.

Real crazy. Come on is this the best the GOP can do? You guys are in trouble even with the bad unemployment numbers

Your problem is it is going to get much much worse the closer 2012 gets. By the time the election rolls around Obama will be notable for being the clown president behind Jimmy Carter. Him and Billie Ayers and Rev. Wright will be sipping tea in 2013 together talking about the good old days.

So this flake has gone AWOL on her constituents in Minnesota 6th Congressional District and spends all her time and money in Iowa while still shamelessly collecting the paychecks and office prestige as Iowa Congresswoman ?

That answer, and her pitch-perfect recent debate performance in New Hampshire, confirmed what observers have noticed since April on the campaign trail – that Bachmann, who’s built a reputation as a voluble conservative firebrand, is capable of calibrating her performance according to the setting. While that’s not a singular political talent, it is an unexpected one in her case—and it could make her a force in the GOP nominating race rather than another curious act in the presidential sideshow.

I'd like to know how stunningly stupid are the folks who vote this idiot Bachmann into office over and over and over again??

Do you suppose they're as clueless as the jerks who keep voting for McConnell ?

Or for Boehner ?

These people are defenders of GREED. They do everything they can to cripple the middle class.

And yet, liars like Bachmann keep getting elected ---- by the very people she is determined to push further and further into economic servitude... while she's defending GREED for a few handfuls of the richest of the rich

Bachmann makes the Libs heads explode. Heck even Mo Dowd is saying that Barry has a Bi problem and can't lead on anything........or he flip flops. Face it, probably my pet rock could debate Barry and win right now his economic record is so bad.

Then-Sen. Barack Obama "refused to raise the debt ceiling because he said President Bush had failed in leadership.- Michelle Bachmann

You obviously were on vacation during the last election. Michelle Bachmann IS the tea party. She is smart, tough as nails, and would represent the conservative constituants well. I would take my chances with her any day against the community organizer that the entire country is finally waking up to as an epic Failure. We all know liberals want Huntsman to be the nominee, but since liberals are'nt the sharpest tools in the shed, I'll stick with Bachmann as my choice, thank you. Liberals laughed when Reagan won the GOP primary. That's fine with me. We have history on our side. As for liberals, they are always on the wrong side of history.

A lot of rednecks in her district, to the shame of most Minnesotans. I do hope she really does drop her house re-election bid if she runs for Prez. That way we get rid of her for good. Otherwise it will take a while for her district to realize what an idiot she really is.

She may tailor her message to her audience, but she isn't going to reveal completely different feelings, because, unlike Barak Obama, she doesn't have to hide her true feelings. She doesn't hold people in a contempt that she only shares with the like minded. Remember Obama's famous quote about guns and religion?

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Ben Stein's film " No Intelligence Allowed " also deals with the history of the Progressive's EUGENICS program that Adolf used and has now evolved into today's abortion clinics. This film is now on youtube. Michele Bachmann is best known for the fight for the rights of the unborn child. Michele has also adopted and cared for many children.